Younger days ( #atozchallenge )

Science Project 1974 (Photo credit: The Rocketeer)

     
          My own childhood is rarely a factor in my dreams, but every once in a while I will find myself back in high school or college.  I assume that I am of that age in the dreams.  My old friends who appear in these dreams appear as their younger selves.

          These dreams seem natural and appropriate.  Since in my younger self I am essentially of adult or near adult age, I feel of the same mindset of my current age.  At times the experience may be one of those cases of being younger but knowing everything that I know now.  I do almost always feel far more confident in those dreams that I might have felt when I was actually that age.

          Most of the time the dreams in these age settings take place in school or a school related scenario.  In some cases I come across as the hero of the dream or a person of notable influence.  Even in dreams where there may be an aura of something bad threatening my circumstance, I seem to almost always come up with a solution or deflect whatever threat might be present.

          The dreams are almost always positive and have a comfortable feeling to them.  After most of these dreams I awaken feeling confident, but perhaps with a wistful longing for my younger days.

          My interpretation is that these dreams are memory filters.   My mind is revisiting past times to reevaluate and perhaps even make things right for my memory of those days.  The dreams may be a reassurance to me that I currently am in control of most things in my life and I know how to find the solutions to any problems I might be having.

          Do you dream of younger days?   What are the most common things in your past that you dream about?   Do you wish you could go back in real life to visit times in your past?

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Back to School

(Photo credit: Wikipedia)

          Here is a recent dream that may have occurred over a period of an hour or two before waking.  As I dreamed this I woke up a number of times and then returned to sleep and back to the continuation of the dream. 

          In my dream I am at my cousin's house.  It is a very large convoluted place beside what appears to be a lake.  There seem to be many people present.  In the house I have my own room which seems to have one wall missing and opened onto a deck area overlooking the lake.

            I have to leave for some reason and find myself in a vast shopping mall-like place.  After I've gone to do whatever it was I needed to do I start looking for my room.  At first I find it readily, but then go back and make repeated attempts to find my room.  Each time it gets more difficult to find it.   The shopping mall begins to seem more like an indoor city as there are more than just stores.

            Eventually I am back in my room and realize I have to get ready to go to school.  I have the understanding in the dream that somehow some of my high school credits were invalid and I have to return to high school to get my degree.  My wife helps me get dressed in some clothes that seem very strange for me.  They are in garish colors and have a mod sort of design.  I have problems putting my belt on because of the way the belt loops are made and my wife helps me put the belt on.

          Then my "room" becomes the classroom.  It is very large with no back wall and the lake in the background.   There are numerous tables that are like picnic tables made of a plastic-like substance and well over a hundred students are sitting at the tables or milling about the classroom.   No classroom study activities seem to be occurring, but there is much socializing.  I see no teacher presence and the students seem to be running this environment.  

            A couple of well dressed young men that I know to be drug dealers are circulating the tables selling their merchandise.   They are very clean-cut looking young men.  One has a natty suit and a smart fedora and a bright toothy smile that makes him look very friendly.  His associate not as well dressed but still dressed very fashionably and he has the same exact smile so that the two almost look like brothers though I know that they're not.  I'm curious about the drugs they are selling and hope they will approach me.

           Beside me a very cute petite teenage girl is flirting with me.  I become very interested in her.  I briefly think that she is far too young for me.  But then I realize that all the students are accepting me as one of them. They see me as cool and having authority, but I feel more their age than my waking life age and start to believe that I too am a teenager.   I am having very positive feelings about being back in school and I feel young.

            There are a number of  themes present in the dream that have a commonality with other dreams that I've had, including the big house, the large shopping center, and the meandering city that seems to be enclosed.   Then there is the back to school scenario.  I have often dreamed that I was back in school again as a student.  Sometimes it is college while other times it is high school.   Frequently the dreams have to do with being unprepared for a test, being lost in the school, or a situation where other students look up to me.  Anxiety is usually short-lived in these dreams and everything usually becomes very positive.  

               Do you ever dream of being back in school?   Are they anxiety ridden dreams or are they pleasant dreams?    How do your school dreams compare with how your actual school experience was?   Are there rooms in your dreams that have a wall missing?

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